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- Thread starter rstreet
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Smokeys auctions
Robert:
I was there either in 88 or 89...I can't remember now!! Did Floyd Garrett have his white 63 Holly Farms car there on display? I was at his second auction. Smokeys 66 Chvelle was auctioned off that day....Floyd was high bidder.
If I was there when you were there..................it's a small world sometimes!!
Robert:
I was there either in 88 or 89...I can't remember now!! Did Floyd Garrett have his white 63 Holly Farms car there on display? I was at his second auction. Smokeys 66 Chvelle was auctioned off that day....Floyd was high bidder.
If I was there when you were there..................it's a small world sometimes!!
Richard, I have been waiting for your "opinion" of that statement. Even though I know little about the history of engine design, that statement floored me too. Some things never change!! 
found the thread, but the picture is gone.
http://www.348-409.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2430&highlight=richard+fran+fred
http://www.348-409.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2430&highlight=richard+fran+fred
Smokey's auction
Robert:
It was 89 when I was there.
Do you remember Smokey auctioning off his coveralls?? I got my friend Delmer McAfee, from Odessa, Texas to ask Smokey if he would sell it. Sure enough, Delmer was high bidder and Smokey took it off right there!!!! He was wearing his boxer shorts, cowboy boots and his hat!!!! Quite a sight!! Delmer had Smokey autograph it and he still has it today.
When I registered at the auction......I didn't have the $$$$$ to bid on anything, I just wanted the bid card. I got bid number 409 and I had Smokey autograph that for me. I still have that too.
There was a lot of high dollar early Chevrolet parts there that you would never see any place else!!!
89 was the year that Dale, Sr. ran out of gas 3 laps from the end and Darrell Walthrup won. I can still remember how all the Tide fans were drunk and standing on vans and cars in the parking lot afterwards!!
Robert:
It was 89 when I was there.
Do you remember Smokey auctioning off his coveralls?? I got my friend Delmer McAfee, from Odessa, Texas to ask Smokey if he would sell it. Sure enough, Delmer was high bidder and Smokey took it off right there!!!! He was wearing his boxer shorts, cowboy boots and his hat!!!! Quite a sight!! Delmer had Smokey autograph it and he still has it today.
When I registered at the auction......I didn't have the $$$$$ to bid on anything, I just wanted the bid card. I got bid number 409 and I had Smokey autograph that for me. I still have that too.
There was a lot of high dollar early Chevrolet parts there that you would never see any place else!!!
89 was the year that Dale, Sr. ran out of gas 3 laps from the end and Darrell Walthrup won. I can still remember how all the Tide fans were drunk and standing on vans and cars in the parking lot afterwards!!
Attachments
Phil, Back in the old days, I made a trip to Odessa looking for 409 stuff. I was steered to Delmer McAfee ( oil field machine shop ) Didnt take long to see that Delmer already owned ALL the 409 stuff. Nice guy to talk to and very informative. Is he a member here? If so, it is a shame he does not post. Wow!! what a collection he has..........
Phil... I can't believe it but I was also over at the speedway that year and remember Waltrip doing the "shuffle" after the race and thanking everyone under the heavens and also above. No. I don't still have my card and don't remember the number. Yes, those Chevy "experimental" parts on all those shelves were tempting but the $$$$$ scared me and I went back to the motorhome empty. I don't remember the coverall deal but so much crazyness was going on it doesn't surprise me.
Hindsight being perfect we should havebought several of the few w parts. Probably all were Z-11 prototypes don't you think
Robert
SycloneJoe
Active Member
Thats some great stuff! I met Smokey at a Tennessee SpeedSport open house one year. Ive got a autographed poster of the '66 with Smokey leaning on it that day. I'll frame it someday.
oil4kids
Well Known Member
Guilty verdict in Thompson murder case
Former business partner Michael Goodwin faces life without parole in the deaths of the racing legend and his wife.
Collene Campbell arrived in court Thursday wearing the St. Christopher medal her brother, slain racing legend Mickey Thompson, wore during his races. It lay over a diamond necklace her mother gave her on her deathbed 11 years ago, asking Campbell not to take it off until her brother's killer was brought to justice.
On Thursday, after nearly 19 years, 74-year-old Campbell was released from those mystic bonds.
A Pasadena jury convicted Michael Goodwin of murdering his former racing-promoter partner and Thompson's wife, Trudy, in 1988, thus writing the climactic chapter in one of Los Angeles County's most enduring murder mysteries.
"I wish I could look up and touch Mickey and Trudy and say, 'We won!' " Campbell said after the verdict, her eyes welling with tears. Later she waved a black-and-white checkered racing flag in triumph.
Campbell, a former mayor of San Juan Capistrano, fought tirelessly on behalf of her brother, who was killed a few years after her son — whose body was thrown from an airplane in an unrelated case.
In the Thompson case, after almost two decades of police investigation and 10 shows about the crime on national television, jurors said no one believed that Goodwin — inventor of Supercross, motorcycle races staged in NFL stadiums — was innocent. They said they never considered that they would not reach a unanimous verdict, and the fact that Goodwin did not testify did not matter.
"All I could say to her [Campbell] was, 'I'm glad you're pleased,' " said the jury foreman, who asked not to be identified by name. "We didn't do it just for her, but because we wanted to do the right thing. We all hope this will bring an end to a long, painful period in her life."
Goodwin, who has been in custody five years, is to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. His lawyer, deputy Public Defender Elena Saris, said she planned to appeal and would ask for a new trial.
Pleading for her client, she argued during trial that Goodwin might have been a "jerk," an "egomaniac" and a "braggart" but was not a murderer.
The Thompsons were gunned down in the driveway of their home in the eastern Los Angeles County community of Bradbury on March 16, 1988, by two hooded gunmen who escaped on bicycles. The killers were never identified or charged, and there was no crime scene evidence connecting Goodwin to the slayings.
But prosecutor Alan Jackson argued that the state of Thompson's home, with thousands of dollars and expensive jewelry untouched, showed the motive to be vengeance and that Goodwin, left bankrupt by a dispute with Thompson, was the only person with a hatred strong enough to plan the carnage.
Thompson, the first American to reach 400 mph in a piston-driven vehicle, was one of off-road racing's earliest promoters. He and Goodwin joined briefly to promote motor sports in Southern California but had a falling out; Thompson won a $514,000 judgment against Goodwin that was pending at the time the couple were killed. It has not been paid. Goodwin declared personal and business bankruptcies as a result of the judgment.
Prosecutors said Thompson was shot repeatedly but was kept alive and forced to watch the murder of his wife before he too was shot in the head.
Jackson overcame significant legal obstacles in prosecuting the case, including the fact that some witnesses came forward years after the slayings.
Campbell played a central role in the long investigation, hiring private investigators, offering a $1-million reward, prodding police and prosecutors and becoming a national crusader for victims' rights.
"She's just like her brother," said her husband, Gary, with whom she attended the trial before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Teri Schwartz.
"She never quits; she never gives in," Gary Campbell said.
He said the long investigation pulled the couple from optimism to desperation. Goodwin was the prime suspect from the beginning, but for years there was not enough evidence to charge him. As the murder inquiry continued through several sets of investigators, a federal court in another case convicted Goodwin of bank fraud in 1995, but he was released from prison two years later.
The Thompsons' slayings fascinated many in the media and were the repeat subject of television shows such as "America's Most Wanted." Gradually, more witnesses appeared, many of them saying their memories had been jogged by the shows.
Eventually, 15 people testified that they had heard Goodwin threaten Thompson's life or those of Thompson's associates. Five years ago, prosecutors in Orange County — where much of the Thompson-Goodwin business rivalry played out — charged Goodwin with murder. But the Campbells were devastated when an appeals court threw out those charges three years ago, ruling that there was no evidence Goodwin had planned the crime there.
The same day, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley filed new murder charges against Goodwin.
Two key witnesses were found: one who saw Goodwin scouting out the Thompson neighborhood, another who said he had confessed to her 10 years after the killings. But Jackson did not call the second witness because of her vulnerability — based on her medical history — to cross-examination.
Deliberations began Dec. 15 after Saris argued that the witnesses' memories had been hopelessly tainted by the passage of time and by the "Hollywood treatment" of the Thompson murders in the media. After a holiday break, the discussions resumed Tuesday.
As the verdict was read, two jurors cried. Goodwin looked down at the table and shook his head slightly from side to side.
Along with the necklace, Collene Campbell wore a golden brooch depicting an angel holding a racing flag, and bracelets in remembrance of her son Scott. In 1982, he died in what police said was a drug-related killing. She also pushed that investigation, finding her son's car, which had been left in an airport parking lot.
She said she knew she would see justice in the deaths of her brother and his wife. "But I didn't think it would take two decades and that I'd be 74 years old," she added.
Jackson, the prosecutor, said the verdict "shows that the system does in fact work, even if it works slowly."
Faced with two dozen television cameras outside the courthouse, Campbell didn't miss a beat.
She passed out fliers with composite sketches of the two bicycle-riding gunmen and asked the public for help in identifying them.
"We still want these people. They're killers," Campbell said. "We got one out of three. But we got the main one today."
Former business partner Michael Goodwin faces life without parole in the deaths of the racing legend and his wife.
Collene Campbell arrived in court Thursday wearing the St. Christopher medal her brother, slain racing legend Mickey Thompson, wore during his races. It lay over a diamond necklace her mother gave her on her deathbed 11 years ago, asking Campbell not to take it off until her brother's killer was brought to justice.
On Thursday, after nearly 19 years, 74-year-old Campbell was released from those mystic bonds.
A Pasadena jury convicted Michael Goodwin of murdering his former racing-promoter partner and Thompson's wife, Trudy, in 1988, thus writing the climactic chapter in one of Los Angeles County's most enduring murder mysteries.
"I wish I could look up and touch Mickey and Trudy and say, 'We won!' " Campbell said after the verdict, her eyes welling with tears. Later she waved a black-and-white checkered racing flag in triumph.
Campbell, a former mayor of San Juan Capistrano, fought tirelessly on behalf of her brother, who was killed a few years after her son — whose body was thrown from an airplane in an unrelated case.
In the Thompson case, after almost two decades of police investigation and 10 shows about the crime on national television, jurors said no one believed that Goodwin — inventor of Supercross, motorcycle races staged in NFL stadiums — was innocent. They said they never considered that they would not reach a unanimous verdict, and the fact that Goodwin did not testify did not matter.
"All I could say to her [Campbell] was, 'I'm glad you're pleased,' " said the jury foreman, who asked not to be identified by name. "We didn't do it just for her, but because we wanted to do the right thing. We all hope this will bring an end to a long, painful period in her life."
Goodwin, who has been in custody five years, is to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. His lawyer, deputy Public Defender Elena Saris, said she planned to appeal and would ask for a new trial.
Pleading for her client, she argued during trial that Goodwin might have been a "jerk," an "egomaniac" and a "braggart" but was not a murderer.
The Thompsons were gunned down in the driveway of their home in the eastern Los Angeles County community of Bradbury on March 16, 1988, by two hooded gunmen who escaped on bicycles. The killers were never identified or charged, and there was no crime scene evidence connecting Goodwin to the slayings.
But prosecutor Alan Jackson argued that the state of Thompson's home, with thousands of dollars and expensive jewelry untouched, showed the motive to be vengeance and that Goodwin, left bankrupt by a dispute with Thompson, was the only person with a hatred strong enough to plan the carnage.
Thompson, the first American to reach 400 mph in a piston-driven vehicle, was one of off-road racing's earliest promoters. He and Goodwin joined briefly to promote motor sports in Southern California but had a falling out; Thompson won a $514,000 judgment against Goodwin that was pending at the time the couple were killed. It has not been paid. Goodwin declared personal and business bankruptcies as a result of the judgment.
Prosecutors said Thompson was shot repeatedly but was kept alive and forced to watch the murder of his wife before he too was shot in the head.
Jackson overcame significant legal obstacles in prosecuting the case, including the fact that some witnesses came forward years after the slayings.
Campbell played a central role in the long investigation, hiring private investigators, offering a $1-million reward, prodding police and prosecutors and becoming a national crusader for victims' rights.
"She's just like her brother," said her husband, Gary, with whom she attended the trial before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Teri Schwartz.
"She never quits; she never gives in," Gary Campbell said.
He said the long investigation pulled the couple from optimism to desperation. Goodwin was the prime suspect from the beginning, but for years there was not enough evidence to charge him. As the murder inquiry continued through several sets of investigators, a federal court in another case convicted Goodwin of bank fraud in 1995, but he was released from prison two years later.
The Thompsons' slayings fascinated many in the media and were the repeat subject of television shows such as "America's Most Wanted." Gradually, more witnesses appeared, many of them saying their memories had been jogged by the shows.
Eventually, 15 people testified that they had heard Goodwin threaten Thompson's life or those of Thompson's associates. Five years ago, prosecutors in Orange County — where much of the Thompson-Goodwin business rivalry played out — charged Goodwin with murder. But the Campbells were devastated when an appeals court threw out those charges three years ago, ruling that there was no evidence Goodwin had planned the crime there.
The same day, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley filed new murder charges against Goodwin.
Two key witnesses were found: one who saw Goodwin scouting out the Thompson neighborhood, another who said he had confessed to her 10 years after the killings. But Jackson did not call the second witness because of her vulnerability — based on her medical history — to cross-examination.
Deliberations began Dec. 15 after Saris argued that the witnesses' memories had been hopelessly tainted by the passage of time and by the "Hollywood treatment" of the Thompson murders in the media. After a holiday break, the discussions resumed Tuesday.
As the verdict was read, two jurors cried. Goodwin looked down at the table and shook his head slightly from side to side.
Along with the necklace, Collene Campbell wore a golden brooch depicting an angel holding a racing flag, and bracelets in remembrance of her son Scott. In 1982, he died in what police said was a drug-related killing. She also pushed that investigation, finding her son's car, which had been left in an airport parking lot.
She said she knew she would see justice in the deaths of her brother and his wife. "But I didn't think it would take two decades and that I'd be 74 years old," she added.
Jackson, the prosecutor, said the verdict "shows that the system does in fact work, even if it works slowly."
Faced with two dozen television cameras outside the courthouse, Campbell didn't miss a beat.
She passed out fliers with composite sketches of the two bicycle-riding gunmen and asked the public for help in identifying them.
"We still want these people. They're killers," Campbell said. "We got one out of three. But we got the main one today."
M/t
Good News. Better late than never. Didn't Mickey Thompson have a son, that took over the business?
As for the two hit men. They will get caught also. As soon as Goodwin's lawyers have exhausted all the appeal processes, and he has time to think. He'll blow the whistle on them.
Good News. Better late than never. Didn't Mickey Thompson have a son, that took over the business? As for the two hit men. They will get caught also. As soon as Goodwin's lawyers have exhausted all the appeal processes, and he has time to think. He'll blow the whistle on them.
Mark,,,,,Thanks for taking the time to post this news. Somehow I had missed it, and it is good to know the outcome.
